Pentecost is a day to consider what the Holy Spirit offers each of us

By Sr. Laura Hammel, O.S.C.
Special to The Catholic Weekly

SAGINAW — As Christians, we often hear references to “The Seven Gifts of the Spirit.”
The idea of spiritual gifts is found in this passage from Isaiah 11:3: “A shoot shall come out from the stump of Jesse; and a branch shall grow out of his roots. The spirit of the Lord shall rest on him, the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and might, the spirit of knowledge and the fear of the Lord. His delight shall be in the fear of the Lord.”
Before we look at our spiritual gifts, we need to understand what we mean by the “gifts of the Spirit.” These gifts come to us as the Holy Spirit touches our lives. We believe the gifts are important because they enable us to surpass our ordinary abilities. They are graces that give us more insight and ability to act as Christians.
All the sacraments are “acts of the Holy Spirit,” although the sacrament of confirmation is where spiritual gifts are specifically mentioned. Inspired by the words of Isaiah, the ritual of confirmation names the gifts of the Holy Spirit: “Send your Holy Spirit upon them to be their helper and guide. Give them the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of right judgment, the spirit of knowledge and reverence. Fill them with the spirit of wonder and awe in Your presence.”
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By Jeffrey Wack
The Catholic Times

PINCKNEY — Pinckney residents Adam and Jessica Carlile share a passion for helping others.
That passion has led them to become missionaries and dedicate their young lives to helping desperately poor people along the border of Haiti and the Dominican Republic.
Through their organization, Building Bridges of Hope, the couple and 25 Pinckney-area volunteers arrived Saturday, April 27, in Grass Lake to hand-load a 40-foot-long shipping container that will arrive in the Dominican Republic at the end of May. The container was packed with clothing, children’s vitamins, baby formula, furniture, toys and playground equipment, and miscellaneous hospital supplies. These items will be used in a mobile medical clinic and the Children’s Nutrition Center.
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Flint clan helps K. of C. raise funds for mentally impaired

By George Jaksa
The Catholic Times

FLINT — Tom Skellett has no trouble getting family members to collect funds for the mentally impaired each Palm Sunday weekend.
“I can’t keep them from doing it,” said Skellett, 83, of the effort to cover four entrances to St. Matthew Church in downtown Flint at the three weekend Masses. “They get a kick out of it.”
Skellett, past grand knight of Msgr. Dunigan Council 695 and past faithful navigator of Msgr. Dunigan Assembly 0510, has been collecting funds for the mentally impaired outside St. Matthew, the Skelletts’ home parish, since the drive was instituted by Michigan Knights of Columbus in 1975.
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Chelsea Mass recalls 1913 visit to United States by future saint

By Joseph Yekulis
The Catholic Times

CHELSEA — Bishop Earl A Boyea recently presided over the Mass attended by 400 people, along with five priests from the local Guanellian community at the St. Louis Center, and Fr. William J. Turner, pastor of St. Mary Church, which hosted the service.
The Mass celebrated the 100th anniversary of the visit of St. Louis Guanella to the United States in 1913.
Forty St. Louis Center residents and staff members were in attendance, along with many families from the St. Louis Guanella Council of the Knights of Columbus. The Cardinal O’Hara 4th Degree Assembly provided the Color Corps for the Mass.
During his homily, Bishop Boyea spoke of the significance of St. Louis Guanella’s outreach to America and the contribution of the Guanellian congregation of priests to the Diocese of Lansing. At the end of Mass, Fr. Joseph Rinaldo, S.dC., presented Bishop Boyea with a gift of a relic of St. Louis Guanella in a new reliquary. The relic was a bone fragment of St. Guanella, which, according to Catholic teaching, is worthy of veneration by the faithful.
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Ypsilanti parish offers at-risk students help, some violin training

By Mark Haney
The Catholic Times

YPSILANTI — For 23 students in grades K-8, the school day ends at 6 p.m. Monday through Thursday, thanks to St. John the Baptist Parish.
And with that, they learn to play the violin.
Under the guidance of Fr. Bob Roggenbuck, the pastor, St. John the Baptist Parish has been offering Schola Artium during the past two school years to at-risk students in the Ypsilanti area
“One of the most pressing pastoral needs in Ypsilanti and this part of the Diocese of Lansing is service to the poor and those who are disadvantaged,” said Fr. Roggenbuck. “Schola, in particular, is our outreach to children who don’t have access to support for their development as people, as students, as members of a community. School systems struggle to meet their needs as do other social agencies, so we are trying to give kids in the community the chance to grow as students, as members of society and at the same time try to share our faith with them. So it is an evangelical effort as well. We are doing this because we are believers in the Lord and we want to share our faith with them as well. But at the same time we are supporting them as students and we are using fine arts as a tool to do that. Music, art, beauty, those are powerful tools for people in their human development.”
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Before heading outside to work on Friday, April 26, the students, staff and parents at Lansing Catholic High School listened to young entrepreneur Veronika Scott (above), who told about her Empowerment Plan. Mark Haney/Catholic Times

By Mark Haney
The Catholic Times

LANSING — The time had come for the students at Lansing Catholic High School to walk the walk.
In some cases, literally.
The entire student body, along with staff and an army of volunteer parents — 500 strong — marched out into the community on Friday, April 26 — Arbor Day, no less — to perform acts of charity during the ninth annual Work-A-Thon. And while some rode in buses to Woldumar Nature Center southwest of Lansing, St. Francis Retreat Center in Dewitt, St. Thomas Aquinas Parish in East Lansing, Lake Lansing Park in Haslett, Henry Fine Park in East Lansing, St. Vincent Catholic Charities in West Lansing, Hawk Island Park in South Lansing and Burchfield Park in Holt, a large number of students walked to areas nearby the Marshall Street campus.
They walked down Marshall to Resurrection Parish, the Allen Street Farmer’s Market, the Garden Project, the Armory Garden and to just clean up along Kalamazoo Street south of the school.
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Srs. Peter Joseph, Evangeline and Maria Suso of the Dominican Sisters of Mary in Ann Arbor are competing the Game Show Network’s “American Bible Challenge” hosted by comedian Jeff Foxworthy (right).

ANN ARBOR — Three Dominican Sisters of Mary have taken up the challenge.
The “American Bible Challenge.”
The three — Sr. Maria Suso, a professed sister, and two novices, Srs. Peter Joseph and Evangeline — made the trip to Hollywood, Calif. for the Thursday, March 21, airing of the show, hosted by comedian Jeff Foxworthy on the Game Show Network. They won that round and earned the right to appear again on Thursday, April 11.
The three took this challenge very seriously.
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During the pilgrimage to the Holy Land, Saginaw Bishop Joseph R. Cistone celebrated Mass at Shepherds Field, in a cave that has been used by shepherds seeking shelter for their sheep.

By Annette O’Brien
Special to The Catholic Weekly

SAGINAW — A diverse group of 120 joined Bishop Joseph R. Cistone to board buses on Wednesday, Feb. 27, as they embarked on a 10-day pilgrimage to the Holy Land.
The people ranged in age from mid-twenties to mid-eighties. They represented 30 parishes of the Diocese of Saginaw as well as visitors from other Michigan dioceses, five other states and a family from Canada.
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The Labouré Society’s summer vocations class of 2013.

LANSING — Danielle Lussier, Melanie Bruss and Theresa Ohaeri have heard the call to a religious vocation.
There’s just one problem: They have debts.
For a number of reasons, religious orders cannot accept candidates until they are debt-free. So the three women have to raise the funds to pay off their college debts before they can become nuns.
That’s where the Labouré Society of Egan, Minn., comes in. Established in 2003, the nonprofit helps those who wish to pursue a vocation learn how to raise funds ethically to pay off their debts.
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Three women find they cannot deny God’s call to a vocation

By Anne Seebaldt
The Catholic Weekly

LANSING — Danielle Lussier, Melanie Bruss and Theresa Ohaeri each thought they were headed in one direction.
Then God turned them around.
Each of the three women — Lussier from the Diocese of Kalamazoo, Bruss from the Archdiocese of Detroit and Ohaeri from the Diocese of Lansing — had gone to college with thoughts of pursuing a secular vocation. Then God called them each to serve in the religious life.
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